"No giant has ever taken down a mature bramblejack before their element ceremony? I would be crazy to go and hunt one alone?"
A towering wolf like creature made of vines and roots, some whipping off its back, stood before a young giant who was holding the same axes Rune had seen before.
"HA! I am Thranir of the giant tribe. Look on, gods! Let this be the day you remember my name."
Rune watches as a young Thranir races towards the monstrosity, axe in hand, cleaving and cutting through vine after vine, each one regrowing as it was cut.
The monster leapt and clamped onto the giant's arm, its fangs sinking deep. Thranir used his free arm to drive one of the axes straight into the beast's eye.
Reeling in pain, it released its bite, giving him the opening to bring the other axe down, slamming into its remaining eye.
The young giant let out a roar, surging in strength as he grabs the monster by its jaws and rips it in half, tearing the roots of its body apart.
The edges of the memory began to fade out...
*****
Back in the mud covered forest of the present, the axes came free from the skull. Rune barely had to pull at all, it felt as though they had been waiting, patiently, for someone to finally claim them.
'Made by a father to guide his son…' Rune thought. 'That alone makes these weapons perfect.'
He twisted and turned the axes in his hands, studying them closely. Forged for a young giant, they were far larger than what a normal person would wield with ease.
'Surely no one will mind me taking these... finders keepers?' Rune looked around one more time before sliding the axe handles into his belt.
He made his way back to the path towards the dungeon, this time making sure he was heading the correct way.
"Hey, hey you, crazy immortal!"
Rune turned his head to see four men, all wearing the same colors, a burnt orange and black symbol etched into the shoulders of their armor.
A crown, with four jagged points. Broken in the middle, two halves hanging to each side.
'The Broken Crown.' He let out a long sigh. 'These thugs love pushing newcomers around for money.'
"What do you all want? I've got a busy day planned."
"Well, you see," the largest one said, resting a sword across his shoulders, "we don't like the idea of a factionless newbie turning a profit running the dungeon."
"Yeah! What he said! Especially not one who thinks he's better than us just because he doesn't like to die."
"Shut up, Carl, I've got this," the big one snapped, elbowing the smaller man aside. "So here's how it works. We're setting up a toll. Anyone without a faction pays 400 merits a day to use the dungeon."
'400 merits?' Rune thought. 'Do they have any idea how much I make? Each run costs me 250 in potions alone, and I barely break even.'
Rune leaned back slightly, resting his hands on the handles of his newly acquired axes. 'Doesn't matter anyway. It's not like I was ever going to pay them.'
"Let's say," Rune said calmly, "I didn't want to pay. What would happen then?"
"We would have to teach you a few lessons… The first would be that crossing the Crown ends in death. And the second…"
The man paused, clearly searching for something cool and intimidating to say.
"The second is that we'll get our pay one way or another…"
Rune pulled out the axes. "That's what you're going with? Feels like you really lost momentum on the second one."
"You should workshop that before next time."
The men glanced at one another as Rune continued.
"But yeah, I'm going to take that option. The one where I don't pay. Words are important, and you said crossing the Crown ends in death."
Rune stood up straight, a smug smile creeping across his face.
"You never said it had to be my death. So I'll make sure it's yours."
At that moment he charged in for the biggest one, attacking before he could even react.
One thing Rune had learned in the dungeon was that being the one to move first held a lot of weight.
'Let's try light first.' Rune looked inward, to the space beside his heart where his element lived, and called on it.
Blinding energy poured from his hands, racing up the axe handles and into their blades, tracing the runes carved along their surface.
It felt as if the axes had been made for this, siphoning the element from him and storing it within themselves.
What happened next, Rune couldn't explain. His arms moved on their own, guided by something deeper than thought. Memory.
The first axe struck the large man square in the chest. Light pulsed from the impact, and the man was knocked back a few feet.
Rune closed the distance instantly and swung the second axe. The strike flared bright, white cracks spiderwebbing across the man's lightly armored chest piece.
On instinct, the first axe followed again, flowing perfectly behind the second blow. When it landed, a violent explosion of light erupted, hurling the man ten feet backward and slamming him into a tree.
He coughed up blood, clutching his ribs as he tried desperately to stabilize what was clearly broken.
The system surfaced in Rune's mind.
[Triple Judgement Remembered]
[Element Power increasing… +5]
"Ah ha! I am a 11 year old goblin now!" Rune shouted, without a single thought for the men standing around him.
If they hadn't already thought he was crazy for refusing to die, they definitely did now.
They moved in together, weapons swinging wildly as they tried to overwhelm him. These men weren't well trained.
Like Rune, they were likely still new to this world.
On instinct, shadow rose around Rune, starting at his feet. As it did, his movements smoothed out, and he began dodging the incoming attacks with surprising grace.
The men grew frustrated, unable to land a hit, and their swings became faster and more desperate.
"Come on now, I thought you all represented one of the 6 great factions!"
Rune struck back, swinging both axes one after the other at a single man, shadow clinging tightly to the blades.
The blows landed hard, but not hard enough to break through the man's armor.
It didn't matter though. Rune's shadow element stuck fast.
It began to corrode, eating away at the armor where it held on.
As the man's armor crumbled and fell off, panic fell on the faces of all of them.
[Shadow Reflexes Remembered….]
[Shadow Corrosion Remembered…]
[Element Power increasing… +10]
"Guys! He is too good for a newbie!"
"He must not die for a reason! He really is immortal!"
Rune just laughed as he moved in again, not giving them any time to think.